Thanks and giving day

Thanks and Giving Day

A memorable day of thanks given for a historic day of kindness and extraordinary unity as a people of one nation welcomed the troubled citizens of another, with an act of peace. Helping a fellow being in unconditional service is as close to touching the divinity within, worth celebrating with pomp and solace as we share a meal on a holiday with family and friends. Homage paid to a single act centuries ago etched in unbroken memory on the pages of past records. 

Yet I simply stop and wonder about the gratitude I must also unconditionally offer to the love of my heart as it stares me in the mirror day after day with passionate kindness and never asking for anything  more, except the innate though forgotten rite to be accepted. My mind and body  having taken a life of their own in a world of fast paced oscillation of order and chaos, have ignored what  they have always been searching for to complete their trifecta. 

The heart space. 

The love of the heart that bares no ill will when enabled to shine its brightest when the chains of ignorance, fears and hatred have been broken. When allowed to be heard, the shroud of misery is tossed aside, and the roar is deafening. The love that connects each of us through our words, actions and deeds such as that historic moment, is lived every day of every second in the feeling behind the thought to assist. Yet one cannot provide assistance to anyone  if the acknowledgment of the Self has not been first made. 

A single feeling, a single thought, a single action ignites the reaction of   a thousand suns all sparked from a space of love. A big bang reaction if you will that originates from a singular point in time and space. 

You. 

It is You that makes that difference.

A gratitude spell that sparks the love of You waiting with bated breath holds the key to untold miracles and magic of epic proportion and soulful ascension. A giving of thanks is not just of an ancient event in history, but more humble gratitude   of the  heart space of the people who sparked such a com-memorable   event. It is that same heart space that has transcended all of human history. It is the same heart space that began human history. It is the same heart space that the future will call "You, Me, Us."

Take a look in the mirror today and take a long or brief moment for the love that is You......it has waited your whole life for this event. Afterwards, the mystery unfolds.

Happy Thanks Giving. 

Can't afford to live

Can't afford to live.

My day started as it always does with the bustling of patients in the busy office practice. With each person a different set of issues that need to be addressed and in that time as much  healing  as possible to be processed. Then along comes a client who stomps you dead in your tracks with their complaint that you cannot hope to deliver a satisfactory outcome and you question your role as  physician in the cogwheel of health care. 

He had had numerous heart attacks and for the litany of ailments he was forced to take numerous medications. He looks at me with the weight of the world bowing his small shoulders, and sunken eyes recessed with little sleep. Haggard and disheveled he attempts a smile as I walk in the room. I ask him how is he doing and how can I help him? His response has haunted me yet. "Doc it is too expensive to live." I curiously inquired to clarify his statement. He replies dejected " I can't afford to live." 

My heart sank with these replies to a low I had not experienced till then. Tears rolled down both our eyes as we understood the nature of his predicament of the costs of medications, insurances, living costs and so on and so forth. With rising costs of everything, and with ailing health, he was broken. His very core was damaged almost irreparably. Almost. We dried our tears and discussed his financial, and health situation. He was more concerned about the money to pay  for the fuel to his aging car to even come to the appointment. He vented about the disparity of incomes and the dwindling job market. At times such as this, there is only space for healing by being silent and listening. The best medication was too costly for him, yet the cheapest therapy was the act of holding space for his grief to metabolize  and unfold into whatever form it was to undertake. The pause to listen to the barrage of the speaker is in itself the very act of spontaneous healing that many crave for, and  not just from their health care professionals yet also from a friend or spouse. 

I have no great solution to solve his finances as I struggle with my own. I have no greater ideas for his health care other than the  brilliant plans I had already set into motion for him, as I struggle with my own. I had only to offer my silence, as I struggle with my own need for silence to allow my heart and mind to not out pace each other, awaiting to be heard. When the conversation was then offered back to me for suggestions we uncovered some possibilities for him to seek out local resources for shelter, and for food and improving his employment opportunities. I offered to help him with some costs of medications, yet he was too embarrassed to  take money from me, as he stayed in gratitude that we had the chance to talk. That was it. Talk. I completed my doctoring duties of the examination and we bid each other farewell. As he walked out I quietly slipped into his jacket pocket enough cash to fuel his car and getting his prescriptions filled. 

It is not for doctoring that I see patients. It is for healing. It is not for advice that a friend unloads their problems to you. It is for healing. It is not for pity that a spouse unloads their days events at your feet. It is for healing. Healing begins with listening. It is that easy. Yet the hardest thing we can do, is to pause from our own unhealed wounds to allow someone else to heal. Yet in doing so what I have now come to realize that I heal myself expeditiously by unconditionally offering the listening that in turn is the healing for both involved. 

Listen and heal, heal and listen. 2 way street.  

Side of the coin

The side of the coin.

There is much going on in the world that leads our minds and thoughts, and in most cases our actions. Some of the happenings  we agree with, and at other times we abhor it. There are many issues that become problems that we cannot solve, and some that are solvable. Such is the nature of life when we step out of our world and explore the rest of the planet. Our tv remote controls  and scrolling mobile devices constantly keep us at the end of a tight leash of impulse action and reaction. 

When I identify that I am part of the problem then I really identify that I am also part of the horror that lies within the world. When I identify that I am part of the solution I begin to take on responsibility. Both identities  are 2 sides of the same coin, yet opposite and so bringing about opposite directions of action. Lineages of biases can effect my decisions ranging from familial to peer related opinions. Yet none are necessarily even my own. True identity does not come from the judgement of others about oneself no matter who is rendering that opinion, unless it is yours and yours alone. 

That is when the aspect of love steps up into the play and can abolish the egoic drama that is in an unending loop. When we offer any decision or idea through the lens of love, we are able to view things very differently. And in doing so we may find a solution to the issue at hand. This is called taking responsibility. When we hold ourselves as accountable  then the natural course is responsibility. This is how change is brought about. Yet the first step is the courage to even open one's heart let alone the mind to the issue at hand. 

To act or not to act is a constant battle. Which avenue s right or wrong? In most incidences it is a case of what is more right or more wrong and so the toss of the coin becomes irrelevant. If love is the driving force in every toss then the bias is always in the favor of a positive outcome when we choose to act from a space of love. Life is not black or white, yet it is a fertile ground of learning and understanding of one's identity and purpose.  

Which side of the coin are you on? Does not matter if the hand that tosses it is in a state of love.

Halloween

Halloween

Halloween cometh. All Hallows Eve. 

A great festival of pomp and celebration enjoyed by many in different cultures over a three day period  of October 31 through Nov 2 known as Allhallowstide. Dating back to antiquity the dead are remembered as they struggle to make their way to the heavenly realms. The significance is forgotten and lost amongst the commercialization of costumes, candy and treats and decorations of ghastly fake monsters to portray the scariness of the season when in fact it is a far gentler festival to be enjoyed and rejoiced with love and affection. 

There are many traditions that are uniquely particular to Halloween yet are replaced with the rituals of pumpkin carving, trick and treats and the dawning of costumes. The fear of halloween has been portrayed in movies and television depicting that the "evil " is out to get us. And in return so many of us wear masks to either scare off the ghouls or at least not let the nasties see our face and so move on. Yet the purer we are within, we innately are able to see past the masks and look into the hearts of others. The ancient idea that on this one night the veil of the good and evil is so thin that evil can cross over and walk amongst us is some what obsurd. The sense of evil is what lies within and is acted out by us when we succumb to our darker nature on our human spectrum and it is not something lurking behind tree trunks on the sides of every road. 

Yet the spirit of Halloween is a time of reverend remembrance to the ancestors of old who have passed and wishing them success on their journeys. With love, respect and ancient rites and  offerings they may pass to the other side comfortably. Or so we are told. The magic of the Halloween is the same as the magic of Christmas. It is in the believing in something bigger than who we are as individuals and recognizing the existance of our future as spiritual beings just as those who came before us.  

Wishing you a happy haunting from the other side. 

A haunting of love.

#metoo

#metoo

I am compelled to acknowledge these 5 letters not as a symbol representing that I was abused. I was not. Far from it. Yet being a man I must pay homage to the suffering of  the fellow co-inhabitants of the species. It would not seem complete if the other side of the coin not understand its counterpart, as then how can a coin ever be whole. It is an unfortunate tragedy that we as men have cultivated the culture that women are inferior or the "weaker" sex and so treated them unfairly and abused them and now to our own peril. These 5 letters represent transparency. Will these letters wash way generational abuse, or the hate that women have been subjugated to and demeaned and degraded for our own lustful pleasures through physical or sexual abuse? Hardly.

The victim here  is not just the girls or women,  yet it is also the perpetrators. The men who abuse are also victims. How you may ask? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Hurt another, then you tear and injure your own soul. Just because we didn't see the "punishments of abusers" in the past does not mean to say that it never was juried out by damaging the male psyche. And hence over time the  generational consequences have weakened mens' true nature and abilities yet strengthened women to regain equality. The balance of nature must always be restored. With the transparency this will come to pass. 

#metoo is not a platform to go " guy bashing." It is an elevated state of awareness and consciousness to the systemic problem of humanity. Yet without abuse or hate how can one learn about innocence and love? With out good how do you define bad? Opposites exist in nature to be experienced and so known. I hope to  and will work always with the idea that we will learn only by experiencing. And in this way having experienced the nature of this systemic generational blasphemy we may begin to unfold the healing and understanding of love and respect, not just for each other yet moreover for ourselves.

Respecting another cannot begin without respecting oneself. Such is the tragedy of an abuser. With venomous words, thoughtless actions, a stern look, a deceitful deed is committed to another person yet fragments our own psyche irreparably. Do we not care enough about ourselves to avoid this consequence? So i ask my fellow man. Brothers, fathers, sons alike to begin the healing of a world with your own healing. Girls and Women are not dolls of pleasure to be discarded, nor are they conquests to be remembered by notches in a belt. They are the sisters, mothers and daughters of a planet long since begging for the balance of harmony to be reassembled. 

Let's try a little experiment of fun in a bad way. I wonder if this #metoo can be colored on a global social media map of the world. Pick a color. I choose red. Lets expand the #metoo to include a more truer comprehensive definition of abuse to include verbal, mental, emotional abuse and trauma and not just physical or sexual abuse. Imagine how this would look on this map. Now lets expand this to children ( male or female) abuse. Let's call it  #kidstoo. Let's pick a color. I pick yellow. Taking it a step farther. #canestoo. This will be the category of the elderly who have been neglected, abused, beaten and treated unfairly. ( This happens a lot more around the world than we care to consider). Lets pick blue. Can you picture what this rainbow of red, yellow and blue will look like across the globe? Any place not effected? Is there any home that has not been touched by abuse? NO. 

Again, respect for gender, age or size of person begins with respecting oneself. Acknowledging the darkest nature of our humanity only serves to liberate us enough to embrace the lighter side of our divinity. Experience, and know. The emotional inheritance of hate, anger and abuse has been experienced and known. Time to understand its opposite and let it go. It is time to acknowledge new words of love and respect and foster these in every relationship regardless of it being with a different gender, same gender, a child or an elder. 

Our basic design was never  to over power the other member of the species. Men over women or women over men. One creates, the other implements. The yin and yang of divinity was made stronger by keeping the bond strong. It was always a simple design of mutual respect, love, equality to afford the ascension of humanity. Fear,shame, blame and guilt have upset this accord. So the next time we decide to verbally abuse another being, or strike them down sexually, or physically, pause but a second and recognize the fear, or hate or anger that generated the thought of perpetration. Sown deep within those thoughts are the seeds of ancestral fears and are more than likely not yours. Easy to do? Not at all. But necessary.  Bigotry and hippocracy  all begin somewhere. Conditioned responses can be broken.  It has been done. Time to rinse and repeat.

An ancient heritage of love awaits our reclaiming. Are you brave enough to reclaim yours?

Meeting deaf ears

Meeting deaf ears

I came upon a very heart warming story. Thought I would share it with you. 

There was once this young deaf man who had just moved into a new small town. The only person he knew was his long time college friend who was fluent in sign language and so could help him communicate with his surroundings at  this new relocation. 

He walks down the street with her and enters a bakery. His friend informs the baker that they need a loaf of bread, and upon paying, the owner turns to this man and signs back " thank you have a nice day"! He immediately was surprised and pleased and replied back the same in sign language, and exited the store. 

They carried on down the street, and a passerby traveling in the opposite direction makes eye contact with this young man and signs " good morning hello". Again he smiles and signs back the same and  is a little astonished. 

They continued their morning walk and he wanted to buy her flowers so they stopped into a florist store and picked out the flowers and went up to the cashier. As he was leaving the cashier signed " those are beautiful flowers, hope you enjoy them". He replied in sign " Thank you and good bye"  

He asked his friend " Did you see that? How did that person and the last few people know how to communicate in sign language ?"

She shrugged, and smiled and they returned on their journey. 

A lady up ahead had dropped her keys and he picked them up and ran over to her to give it her. She was grateful and then signed back " Thank you for your help. " He was totally beside himself and bewildered that surely as a foreigner to this new town with a " handicap"  how are there  beyond a coincidence a number of people who could use sign language. Again he asked his friend, who shrugged and smiled. 

They reached the bus stop where he and his friend got onto the bus and suddenly the  bus driver greeted him in sign language and communicated to him the fare and destinations. He was astonished and teary eyed. He paid the fare and sat down confused. Suddenly from behind his seat an older man put his hand on his shoulder. He jumped with a start. The old man smiled and signed him " Welcome" He was now totally shaking with bewildered happiness. 

Another person on the bus also turned and signed to him " Dont worry"

He looked over to his friend in shock and fear. That is when she grinned and signed to him." I told the town a few days ago that you were coming and were deaf and could only sign and so each and every member of this town thought the best way to make you feel at home and welcome you, was to have everyone learn basic sign language as fast they could in a short period of time before your arrival. "

So here it is folks. You make a difference in peoples' lives by making a change in your own first. You reach out with love across any barrier of race, color, gender, creed, religion, equality, age, disability, or any possible difference. The offering of a single smile to a stranger you meet on the street, changes the path they were on. You do not know if that stranger was having a bad day but that your simple acknowledgment of their humanity perhaps changed their course. 

Reach out. Extend yourself. Lend out your heart. If you never do, you will never know if you are capable of more than you have ever dreamed. 

And I know you are. I have seen it. I have felt it. In your eyes. In your hearts. 

Welcome to the planet. It's not all that bad as you have been told. 

Magic is everywhere. 

a bloody story

A bloody story

So the other day an incident occurred. The morals of it were far reaching. I will share.

My 6 y old kitchen savvy and chef wanna be son decided to chop cantaloupe. Something that he has done many times yet accidents happen and in an instant  sliced his finger. Numerous gauzes were used with copious amounts of ice. Yet after almost and hour and a half of pumping bright red blood that never ceased we finally took him to the local Urgent care center. It was still pumping away and during the registration process the medical staff entertained him with their kindness and compassion. Immediately his bleeding in front of my eyes stopped. Now one might say that all bleeding stops eventually, but this was something spectacular. The medical staff also remarked how quickly it ceased and literally before our eyes the wound closed and healing was well under way. What was the catalyst? He was calmer. 

Once engaged within the more peaceful and jovial environment of others he quickly calmed down and allowed his body to do what it innately knows. Heal thyself. 

This is an important observation as it can apply to copious examples in our lives where the stresses and tensions catapult our minds and bodies into different directions and the lack of synchronization aides us even less. Imagine for a moment the link between our outward environment that can turn hostile at home, work or even family life whereby we are immediately put into a state of flight or fight and our internal arena. Whether we are  fighting off diseases within and unsuspectingly receive the common cold or flu or are forced to deal with life circumstances of  difficult finances or protracted hardships that change our physiology to a hyper state. The effects on our organs and bloodstream are extreme as  are the effects to  our heart and mind dramatic play. 

Our internal environment is linked to our external surroundings via our sense bodies and regulated by our mind and brain yet governed by our heart through feelings. It is here where we have the opportunity to over rule the chaos of the minds' fears and anxieties and return all parts of our selves to a peaceful and well balanced center. In the end it is the identity of the Self  that we sometimes forget to recognize that is the ultimate driver of the vehicle that is our fragile body. 

Moral of the story. Watch out for sharp knives by being fully present in the moment and when things go awry the same presence of heart and mind will bring about miraculous results in our lives and to all around us that we interact with in our world. There are emergencies and then there are emergencies. Knowing which to one to react to and how to react to them is a conditioned response by filtering the emotions through the heart.